@article{a91bc1ea93c54d5ebcb2f0289d8c5f04,
title = "Literacy at play: An analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competencies",
abstract = "Media literacy is considered one of the key competencies to acquire in the 21st century. With games being recognized as having a large potential to train and educate, a wide range of games focusing on media literacy related topics such as fake news games, digital privacy, personal media habits, and practical media skills have sprung up over the years. All claim to foster media literacy skills and competencies. This begs the question how these games generally frame and understand media literacy, what competencies and skills they actually focus on, and through which game design choices. This paper thus asks: how media literacy games are designed to foster media literacy? Taking the Dutch Media Literacy Competencies Model as a departure point, we answer this question using a thematic analysis of 100 media literacy games and formal analysis of a smaller heterogeneous sample consisting of 12 games. We present a series of key findings involving the prominent presence of certain topics and competencies in the dataset, as well as prevalent design choices, allowing for a discussion of the current landscape of literacy games and underlying competencies and future potential for development.",
keywords = "digital games, media literacy, digital literacy, literacy competencies, educational games",
author = "Ren{\'e} Glas and {van Vught}, Jasper and Timo Fluitsma and Salvador G{\'o}mez-Garcia and {de la Hera}, Teresa",
note = "Funding Information: This research is part of a larger project titled DIGITAL LITERACY GAMES: Digital games designed to support digital literacy skills acquisition funded through a KIEM GO-CI grant by the Dutch Nationaal Regieorgaan Praktijkgericht Onderzoek SIA, part of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Grant Number: GOCI.KIEM.01.033. Funding Information: Given that this research is part of a larger research project focusing on the potential of media literacy games funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), our understanding of media literacy departs from the purposefully broad and multi-faceted Dutch Media Literacy Competency Model 2021 (Netwerk Mediawijsheid, ). This model, discussed in more detail below, identifies a total of eight media literacy competencies and ten areas affected by a person's media use. In this paper, we report on how media literacy is fostered in a sample of games from an extensive database of 100 games which was created specifically for this project. The procedure of database creation, sampling, and thematic analysis of the game's topics, mechanics, and the inherent competencies they aim to train will be discussed in the method section below. Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2023 Glas, van Vught, Fluitsma, De La Hera and G{\'o}mez-Garc{\'i}a.",
year = "2023",
month = jun,
day = "21",
doi = "10.3389/fcomm.2023.1155840",
language = "English",
volume = "8",
journal = "Frontiers",
issn = "0160-9009",
publisher = "University of Nebraska Press",
}